Desperate Guilt
by Wolf-ODonnell
Summary: Edward Elric finds himself on a lone road that heads into the quaint lakeside town of Silent Hill. What he finds there will make him question his very sense of self and the true nature of humanity.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

It should have been simple.

They had everything: thirty-five litres of water, twenty kilograms of carbon, four litres of ammonia, one and a half kilograms of lime, eight hundred grams of phosphorous, two hundred and fifty grams of potassium, eighty grams of sulphur, one and a half grams of fluoride, five grams of iron, three grams of silicon and trace amounts of other elements. All that was required to make a human body had been theirs to use.

For years, they had spent hours on end, toiling over the books, working hard for this one great achievement. Years of tears, sweat and blood had been spent on the greatest achievement they could endeavour—human transmutation.

But the floor was awash with blood. Pain seared through his nerves.

His brother's screams still echoed in his ears, reverberated in his mind like the last anguished screams of a tortured ghost. Or was it his? Was he still screaming, from the agony of his lost leg?

It should have been simple.

And it was.

He just simply failed and paid the simple price.

One left leg and the life of his dear younger brother. Laughably simple, a trivial price to pay.

Now move on. There's nothing to see here. Leave the little boy. Let him bleed to death, alone in the cold room, in a house with no family, where the memories are razor-sharp. Move on.

* * *

"Where am I?"

It was hard to see through the mist, pure white as an innocent soul and as intangible as his… His what; what exactly was it as intangible as? He couldn't remember. The thought slipped off him like water of a duck's feathers. Try as he might, he couldn't quite remember who or what it was that he was thinking about.

Something cold, bitterly cold touched his cheek. He touched his face with a hand and felt a cold, moist droplet. Thumb against finger, he massaged the water into his skin. He frowned. Was it rain? But it was far too cold for it to be rain. He opened his hand.

A snowflake, as soft and white as a feather, fluttered onto the palm of his hand. It melted there.

He looked up.

"Snow?" he wondered. "But it's July."

Slowly, he grinned, a big wide grin on his pale face. He spread his arms and welcomed the snowflakes. The young lad welcomed the cold that floated down from the grey, morose heavens. He welcomed the flakes as white as innocence, as if they could wash away his sins.

Footsteps echoed around him.

They weren't his own.

He looked around him, his eyes darting wildly. Through the mist, he could see a shadow. Vaguely human in shape, it ran away from him, fled into the mist.

"Hey, wait!" he called out. "Wait up!"

The figure receded into the distance.

Golden eyebrows furrowed. "Hey!" he called out to the figure, but it was no use. The person didn't hear him. Perhaps they were too far away. Maybe, they didn't want to listen. Either way, they didn't stop and it wasn't long before he lost all sight of them.

Still, it wasn't as if he couldn't follow them. The road, though winding, was the only one there. To his right, the ground fell away abruptly. To his left, it rose so steeply, it might as well have been a wall. If he followed the road, he would see them eventually. There was no way he couldn't. It was inevitable.

Eventually, he came to a sign that stood to the road's right.

It welcomed him to Silent Hill.

He stopped in his tracks.

Why did that name sound so familiar? Had he been to Silent Hill before? He wondered. Perhaps, he had. The sign itself seemed very familiar, worn and grimy with old age. Its letters seemed comforting, warm with memories of a long, forgotten past.

Slowly, he smiled. He remembered now. A long time ago, his father and mother had taken him to Silent Hill. His brother had gone with him too. He had only been about eight years old when he'd visited the little town; his brother was a year younger still. That had been a long time ago, about eight years, but he still remembered the days they'd spent there, fishing by the shores of Lake Toluca.

It had been a peaceful town. He remembered the quaint little houses, so beautiful in their simplicity. There had been a fair when they'd visited. He could remember the games. Al had won all of them and he had lost all of them, but at least his little brother had been kind enough to share the prizes. The carousel, the Ferris wheel, the fireworks—the memories persisted.

Without knowing it, he had walked the rest of the way.

The town was quieter than he'd remembered it.

It was unusual for a town to be so empty. Nothing stirred. In the cold mist, he found himself all alone. He saw no happy people, their bright smiles like sunshine made real, made life. There were no sounds.

Where was everyone?

He walked up to a little shop and peered through the window.

Inside, it was dark and miserably empty. The shop had been a confectioners and he could remember when he and his brother had visited it with their father and mother in tow. His father had paid for a toffee apple, one for each member of the family. He could remember the sweet smile of the shopkeeper, how she'd also give them a bag of Albion toffees.

There was nothing there now. It looked as if the shop had been abandoned for years.

The next shop along was just the same. So was the one further down. Each one he came across was deserted, the wares ruined with age. He didn't know what happened, but whatever it was, it had been abrupt.

Scum grew on cups of what might once have been coffee. The café was full of unfinished drinks, the cups stained with what remained, fungal growth thriving off others. The stench of decay filled the air.

Slowly, he turned his back on the shops and made his way back down the road, back the way he'd come. The shops gave way to houses, dilapidated with broken windows, boarded up windows, lawns with overgrown grass, rotting wooden picket fences, collapsed roofs. How had he missed all this?

The mist failed to obscure the decrepitude.

Yet it was getting thicker. The snow had stopped now or perhaps it hung cloyingly in the air and added to the fog, made the mist thicker, until his vision was obscured with white.

He screamed.

His heart skipped a beat and he felt it leap up into his throat, as the ground gave way. Instinctively, he reached up and tried to grab something. He managed to grab the edge with one hand, his other dangling beside his body. Slowly, he reached up.

A crack sounded and the noise struck his very heart. It pounded furiously, terror welling up inside him, filling him, gushing out his eyes.

The rock broke and he fell.

"Gotcha!"

Someone had grabbed him by the arm. In the mist, he couldn't see who it was, but he was grateful. He reached up and grabbed the arm with free hand. A manic smile of relief on his lips, he felt his body ascending. His feet scrabbled against the vertical surface, against the clean cut rock.

"Are you alright?" asked the man breathlessly, as he knelt down beside the blonde-haired youth.

His breath was also ragged, as he knelt on all fours on the ground. "Yeah," he managed to reply, as he looked behind him. It was still misty, he still couldn't see beyond the thick white veil. "Thanks," he said gratefully.

"You're welcome," replied his rescuer. "Name's Roy, Roy Mustang."

"Ed," he told Roy. "Edward Elric." He looked up, as he got back up to his feet. "Thanks," he said again, redundantly, as he straightened up. He turned again and tried his best to peer through the mist. "I could have sworn this road goes straight."

"It does," replied Roy.

Ed frowned. "But I stepped off the edge, didn't I?" he exclaimed.

"You stepped over the edge, alright," agreed Roy.

"What? But you said…"

Fingers clicked and a burst of flames filled the air. It burned brightly in the mist, heating the moisture, vaporising it, clearing the air.

"What…? What is this?" cried Ed in disbelief, as he stared at the road. "The… It's gone!"

He stared in disbelief at the vast chasm in front of him. The road ended abruptly, its jagged edges jutting out over a vast abyss. It extended to his left and to his right. The chasm cut through houses, through gardens. It left nothing in its wake.

"I… I can't see the other side," gasped Ed.

"That's not half of it," responded Roy. "Just look down."

Ed turned to glare at the man whom had rescued him. The black-haired man's lips were twisted into a smug, self-satisfied smile. "Why?" he asked Roy curiously.

"Just take a look," responded Roy. "Aren't you curious as to what could have happened?"

The blonde-haired youth turned round to look at the chasm, this vast abyss that seemed to stretch out forever. He stepped cautiously back towards the edge and looked, peered over, down into nothingness, down into a complete absence of anything. Just as he couldn't see the other side of the chasm, he couldn't see the bottom either. It was as if the entire town had been torn free from the land and suspended in nothing.

"How is this possible?" cried Ed. "I came into town this way."

Roy looked on grimly, his hands in his pockets. "I've tried every other road out of this town, every other road I could think up of," he told Ed sternly. "They're all like this. We're completely cut off from the rest of the world."

This was impossible. How could something like this happen?

Edward couldn't believe it. He just couldn't. "When did this happen?" he asked Roy.

The black-haired man shrugged silently.

"But… there must be some way of getting out of here," Ed protested, his voice strained. "Have you tried the phones?"

"They're all dead," responded Roy. He whirled round, as if he had heard something. "I've…" he began cautiously, as he turned back round to face Edward, "I've tried all the phones I could find. Not a single one works." Roy turned his head again. "We're completely cut off. There's no…" He slowly trailed off. "Stay back!" he cried and with a snap of his fingers, he shot out a jet of flames.

A blood-curdling shriek pierced the silence.

"What did you do?"

"Alchemy," responded Roy Mustang calmly.

"I know that!" protested Ed angrily. He pointed into the distance at the still smoking figure now slumped against the ground. "What did you do that for, you bastard?" he cried demandingly.

"Take a closer look."

Ed turned round, the anger on his face dampened with a perplexed furrow of his brows. "What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped. "Why don't you just give me a straight answer?"

Slowly, the black-haired man shook his head. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you," he replied. His lips cracked into a strange, twisted smile. "Even I don't quite believe it," he murmured under his breath, just audible enough for Edward to catch the words. He chuckled humourlessly.

The golden-haired youth didn't like the way Roy laughed. He didn't like the way the man's voice cracked near the edges, the strange dullness of his eyes. There was something very wrong with him; he didn't trust this Roy Mustang one bit. Yet who else was there here?

Slowly, he made his way towards the smoking body, away from the edge, his back turned dangerously to the man. He edged cautiously to the body slumped in front of him, some fear nestled in the back of his mind, his breathing ragged from a strange anxiety with no cause in the present. He didn't know why, but he just knew that, somehow, he wasn't afraid to see this thing that failed to twitch, that just lay there still as a corpse.

A gasp escaped Ed's lips. "What... what is that thing?" he cried.

"I don't know," replied Mustang from behind Edward. "I just…" He exhaled sharply. "Perhaps… No, it couldn't be. It's forbidden."

The charring made it difficult to tell, but Edward could still see the thing wasn't human. Human in shape, perhaps, but it didn't resemble a human, not a healthy one at least. Its charred skin covered everything from the waist upwards. The thing resembled a man wearing a straitjacket made out of charred skin, its face devoid of any orifices. What did it look like before Mustang had roasted it to death?

Slowly, Ed crouched down beside the body, his eyes incapable of tearing his gaze away from the charred flesh. "There're more of these things out there, am I right?" he asked sternly, as he slowly reached out towards it. His fingers nearly touched the charred skin, but something, possibly nerves, made him pull back.

"The town's a dangerous place," Roy told him.

"What could have caused this?" wondered Edward, as he straightened back up.

Roy shook his head. "I don't know," he replied. "I just don't know. This place, it was fine no less than two weeks ago. Then, without warning, the place just…" He sighed, as he ran a gloved hand through his pitch-black hair. "I sent my best men to investigate. None of them returned. Not a single one."

How could he have missed it? Edward was usually so perceptive. So how was it possible that he hadn't picked up the fact that Roy Mustang was dressed in military clothes? He shouldn't have been so unperceptive.

Ed brushed a few stray strands of golden hair out of his eyes. "What's wrong with me?" he wondered inaudibly, as he looked around him. He couldn't remember how he'd even ended up on the road to Silent Hill, let alone how he'd ended up straight in the town.

"This place used to be so peaceful," said Roy, his face drooped into grim solemnity. "I came here for my holidays." He smiled. "The women here…" he said, then he chuckled with a slow shake of his head. "Let's just say they were very friendly." He frowned. "Hey, where do you think you're going?" he called out.

The youth stopped in his tracks and turned his head back to glare at Roy Mustang. "I'm going to find a way out of here," he replied sternly. "Got a problem with that?"

"You can't go alone," protested Roy. "It's too dangerous for a little kid like you."

"Little?" growled Edward angrily. "I'm not little!" he shouted. "Besides, I can take care of myself."

Roy smirked. "Sure you can," he said sarcastically, as he gestured behind him at the great gaping chasm. "Like the way you fell off the edge. I was impressed the way you managed to... Oh, no, wait. You were going to fall to your death, weren't you?" He frowned. "What are you doing here alone, anyway? What happened to your parents?"

"I don't have any parents," snapped Ed, as he made his way across the road to the ruined house, split in half by the gigantic chasm.

"I told you, there's no way out of this town," said Roy sternly, as he grabbed the youth by the shoulder. "I've checked."

"Bullshit!" he shouted, as he threw the man's hand off his shoulder. "I came here today," he shouted. He pointed in the direction of the edge he had fallen off. "Down that road; straight from Resembool! You telling me I walked here over thin air?" Ed whirled round. "There has to be a way out of here," he said more quietly, "and I'm going to find it."

Roy sighed heavily. "Then I'm coming with you," he said sternly.

"I'm telling you, I can take care of myself," protested Edward angrily.

"Do you know your way around?" retorted Roy sharply.

Ed stopped in his tracks. He could vaguely remember the town of Silent Hill from eight years ago, but there was, he had to admit, a possibility the place had changed. In fact, he realised as he looked at the ruined houses, it was possible that the place had changed, though through no design of the townsfolk themselves. No, it was definite the town had changed since the moment he stepped foot in it.

He swivelled round on the spot. "Do you?" he asked Roy curiously.

Roy smiled in response.

* * *

They had come to yet another chasm, a great gaping wide chasm in the ground. This time, Edward could just about see the other side, but it was too far away to reach. He couldn't do anything. There was no way to get across.

"What's on the other side?" asked Edward curiously.

"Gordon King," replied Roy sternly, "the local hospital." His hands clenched tightly, as he glared across the chasm angrily. "It's the only part of town I haven't been able to search yet."

Ed remembered Gordon King. One day, before their vacation could come to an end, his mother had become ill. He could remember how she'd collapsed by the lake edge for no apparent reason whatsoever. The very memory frightened him. He could remember running for help, leaving his little brother behind.

They'd taken her to the hospital not long after that and she'd stayed there for two weeks. He remembered visiting her with his brother, how'd they brought her a beautiful bunch of flowers. The smile on her face, he could never forget the smile on her face.

"I think… whatever's going on, we can find the answers over there," continued Roy, not caring whether Ed heard him or not. "Someone doesn't want us to leave and they don't want us anywhere near that hospital."

"You think someone's behind all this?" asked Ed, as he gestured to the chasm.

Roy continued to stare out through the mist. "Someone has to be," he replied. He turned and started to walk away.

"Hey!" cried Ed angrily and he raced after Mustang. "Where do you think you're going?" he shouted, as he caught up with the older man. "I thought you said I couldn't go off alone?"

"You're not alone, are you?" responded Roy. "Just stick by me and you'll be fine."

Ed's lips melted into a scowl. "What? You mean like some kind of dog?" he shouted angrily. "That I'd follow you around no matter what?" How dare Roy think he would just follow him around like some kind of loyal! He wasn't like that. He wasn't like some kind of defenceless little child. "You saying all you have to do is whistle and I'll come bound up like some good little dog?" He wanted to hit Roy, punch the living daylights out of the black-haired man. "You know what? Screw you!"

He turned round and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Edward, wait!" protested Roy.

No, he wouldn't wait. He had had enough of the man, enough of listening to that condescending voice, enough of the man's condescending attitude. So what if he was a high-ranking soldier and a State Alchemist? So what if the man was fifteen years older? He didn't have to listen to that Roy Mustang.

Gradually, his pace grew quicker. He broke out into a run. Ed kept running; he didn't look back.

Round the corner of a bar, he slumped against the cracked wall, his breath ragged, his eyes gazing up at the heavens. He saw the grey sky, the foreboding clouds that hung above him like the Wrath of God's judgement.

"I'll find my own way out of this damned place," he murmured. "Fuck him!"

Something approached out of the distance. He could hear it coming. It got closer until the scream of sirens was in his ears. The sound was deafening, so close it felt as if it had gotten into his head. He could feel it reverberating around in his skull, so painfully that it felt as if it would burst.

Edward clasped his head in his hands, screaming in agony, as the sirens shrieked in his skull. "What's going on?" he cried. "Stop it!"

His screams echoed in the mist, as the Darkness swallowed him.

* * *

Author's Note: Yes, I'm well aware that there is no Gordon King Hospital in Silent Hill. The name is a tribute to the Gordon Museum of Anatomy at King's College London, and some of their specimens have served as inspiration for some of the monsters that will appear later in the story.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

It was dark when Edward woke.

"Urgh, what happened?"

As he propped himself up, he looked around him, his eyes scanning the darkness. If the fog had been thick, the darkness was even thicker. He could barely see past his nose, let alone through the dark.

Ed slowly got back up to his feet. He looked around him and grunted. Typical, he thought. He knew that Roy Mustang character was not to be trusted. It was night and that soldier had left him by the wayside. At least, he assumed Mustang had left him lying there on the ground. It wasn't as if he was hidden very well.

"Damn, it's dark," he murmured under his breath, as if the spoken words would assure him in the town's deathly silence.

At least, though, he mused, it had stopped snowing. In fact, it had probably stopped snowing a long time ago. His clothes felt oddly dry. There were no snowflakes settled on it or melted droplets of water. He was dry as a bone.

First thing's first, he decided, he would have to get a lantern. It was no use stumbling in the dark. Who knew what dangers there were out there?

If only he could see his way to a place that had one, though. He smiled wryly. Of course, to see his way through the darkness, he'd need a lantern in the first place.

"Think, Edward!" he told himself mentally. "What did I pass on the way here?"

He winced suddenly, as something sharp bit into his flesh. A metallic chink followed next and then another sharp pain in his right leg. His eyes widened in terror. "Hey!" he cried out, as he kicked violently out in the darkness.

There was a cry from something, as he hit it.

Quickly he ran through the darkness. He stumbled sightlessly and tripped over something. Ed tried to steady himself. He veered sideways, crashed through a door and landed heavily on a wooden floor.

In the light, he could see his pursuers. Grotesque children, deformed, narrow heads, limbs think, grey and rubbery, waddled towards him. Each with a single, dead eye in their head, they gazed at him maliciously, their lips a slash across the damp flesh. They advanced with knives, red with blood and rust, held tightly in their foetal hands.

A shot screamed through the silence.

Several more sounded.

Edward watched as the deformed grey, children were blown away in a splatter of red. He watched as they fell, one by one, their bodies convulsing crazily.

"Are you alright?"

A blonde-haired man crouched down beside Ed, the light glinting off his spectacles. "Your legs!" he exclaimed. He looked down at the cuts across Ed's legs—the shredded fabric and the red blood. "We should get those treated, right away."

"I-I'm fine," protested Edward.

"They cut you pretty badly," the bespectacled man said. "There're some bandages round the other side," he said and gestured to the bar with his head, "and I'm sure we can find something here to sterilise those wounds."

"I can take care of myself!" snapped Ed angrily, as he got back up to his feet. "I mean, who are you anyway? What are you doing here?"

The man propped his spectacles back up his nose with a single finger. "I could ask the same of you," he replied calmly, as he stood up. "The name's Shou Tucker." He shut the door Ed came through then propped a nearby chair up against it. "And what would your name be, kid?" He made his way over to the bar and ducked behind it.

Ed scowled angrily at Shou Tucker, but the man didn't see as he ducked behind the bar. "Ed," he said sharply, "and I'm not a kid."

Shou chuckled, as he brought out a small green box and laid it on the rough, unpolished bar top. "Well, if you've survived this long I guess you must be more than just a kid," he said in an almost agreeable tone of voice. He looked behind him. "Ah, vodka! Now that would do the trick."

Vodka contained alcohol, Ed remembered. Alcohol was good at sterilising wounds. Did that mean what he thought it meant? "I told you, you don't have to worry about me," he repeated. He frowned, as Shou dumped the box and a bottle of vodka on a nearby table then sat down.

"Right you are," agreed Shou with a nod of his head. "But I'm sure you'll want to take care of those wounds yourself, right?" He looked aside at the window, black from the darkness. "So, Ed, what brings you to a forsaken town like this?"

The box contained cotton wool, small adhesive plasters and a little bit of antiseptic cream. No need for the vodka, Ed mused. "I don't know," he replied, as he rolled up his right trouser leg. "I just…" He trailed off. "I don't know why I'm here. I don't even know how I got here." He shook his head, as he cleaned his wounds. "The roads out of here… They're…"

He clenched his eyes shut, so tightly, it felt as if entire face would scrunch up into a singularity and disappear within itself. "It's… It's nuts!" he cried angrily. "What the fuck going on here? What happened to this town?"

Shou rose up slowly from his seat and reached for the bottle of vodka. He unscrewed the top, then took a swig of the clear liquid. Then, he slammed the bottle back down on the table. "Have you seen what it's like out there?" he asked him. "I just…" He shuddered. "I hope my wife and daughter are safe."

Ed averted his gaze and went back to tending to his wounds. He remained silent, as he cleaned the rest of his wounds and then plastered them up. The two of them remained silent, as they sat there in the light of the lanterns.

"They're somewhere here," said Shou hoarsely.

There was a screech of wood against wood, as Ed stood up, shoving his chair back in the process. Wordlessly, he walked past Shou and grabbed one of the two gas lanterns. He looked around him.

It wasn't safe there in the bar, not with those lanterns lit. No doubt, those deformed monstrosities were still out there and he was sure the light would only attract them. He looked at the door then over at the other door, barred with a table and a chair. They would only hold those demons off for so long.

"Hey, where are you going?" called out Shou.

"Out," replied Ed abruptly.

"But you saw what was out there!" protested Mr. Tucker. "Besides, you haven't even treated your other leg."

Ed stopped in his tracks and sighed. "I don't need to," he replied and he bent over, rapped his knuckles against his left leg. "Automail," he said, after the metallic echo died away. "Now, if you'd excuse me, I've got to find a way out of this town."

"You know there isn't," retorted Shou, as he rose from his seat. "This town's cut off! All the roads out have been destroyed!"

The youth whirled round, his golden eyes glaring at the man angrily. "And what would you want me to do instead?" he barked. "Stay here and wait for those things to get in and finish me off?" He turned his head away, the emotional scaffold on his face crumbling under the weight of something new. "I guess, while I'm out there, I can help you search for your wife and daughter. I mean, we'd be better off if we stick together."

"No," came the reply. "I couldn't," responded Shou with a shake of his head. "I couldn't possibly drag you into this as well." He smiled, as Ed turned round to glare at him. "Go," he said, "find a way out of here. You're still young. There's no reason for you to stay here."

The young blonde-haired youth looked around him. The bottles were stained with dried blood. Some contained only sticky residues. Blood covered the bar top. Pictures hung from the walls, their canvas burnt and ripped. The windows were misty, stained, their metallic frames rusted. All around the two of them, the place smelt of decay.

"What will you do if I leave?" asked Ed curiously. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Was Shou Tucker seriously thinking of staying in this rotting excuse for a bar?

Slowly, unsteadily, Shou rose from his seat. "I think it's best you leave now," he told the youth. "Find a way out of this place."

Perhaps, Ed mused, that Roy Mustang wasn't so untrustworthy after all. At least the man had seemed genuinely sincere about Ed's well being. This man, though… Something was very strange about this man.

"I'll do that," Ed said calmly.

* * *

The door shut behind him.

Edward Elric raised his lantern in the darkness and looked around him. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but the town seemed even more decrepit than before. The roads seemed in greater disrepair than before, and every now and then, he'd see the burnt out husks of automobiles.

Every now and then, he'd see large horrific splatters of blood on the ground. Huge marks that suggested a violent murder and the tracks of a bloodied corpse, dragged away.

These things hadn't been there earlier.

Yet the blood seemed familiar, its stench in his nostrils overpowering in its familiarity. He couldn't say why. There was no reason for it. There was no reason he should recognise that stench. He had never been to an abattoir. Edward had never hurt or killed anyone.

He stopped in his tracks.

A mewling caught his attention. He looked around him, casting light around him randomly. "Hello?" he called out thoughtlessly, as he looked around him. Why'd you do that, he wondered. It's obviously a cat, he thought.

A cat, he thought again, as his chest tightened.

Alphonse had loved cats. He remembered that now. His little brother had been very fond of the felines. A smile slowly spread across Ed's lips, as he remembered how Alphonse had tried to sneak a cat into the house one day. He had hidden the cat in a suit of old antique armour their Dad owned and had snuck food to the feline.

Ed hadn't known. He found out when the cat's yowling echoed through the armour, scaring the living daylights out of him. Alphonse had found it riotously funny. He had been reluctant to admit it, he was still reluctant to admit it, but he had honestly believed the armour had been possessed.

The sound seemed to come from underneath the rusting wreckage of a nearby automobile.

He looked up and down the street. Behind him and in front, he checked all viewpoints. No one was around.

The blonde-haired youth set the lantern down on the pavement and crouched down beside the automobile, bloody red with rust. He listened; the mewling came from underneath. There was no doubt about it. The cat was underneath.

Under the dark recesses, he saw a form. It shivered violently, as if from the cold. That was all. He couldn't see anything else, but the vague shape.

"What are you doing under there?" he asked the cat curiously, as he crouched there on the ground. "Come on out. It's not safe here." He extended a gloved hand out towards the cat, making encouraging noises. "Come on. I won't hurt you."

His eyes widened.

In one movement, Edward grabbed the lantern and leapt out of the way. The huge, fat monstrosity smashed into the car, turned it over.

Whatever the thing was, Edward couldn't quite stomach it. The thing had long hair and a reptilian tail. Faces and arms protruded from its body. They moaned and cried, they screamed and uttered nonsensical phrases. Hands, faces, scrabbled to the surface, fought one another as it to get away from the monstrosity's main body. Heads attempted to escape through the mouths of other faces. All shook violently as if from the cold.

A gasp of terror escaped Edward's lips, as he looked at where the car had once been.

The cat…

It looked as if someone had shaved it. Dried stains on its body told the tale of blood that once oozed out of orifices. The thing shivered, shuddered like the fat humanoid that had knocked the car aside. It stood up, staggered drunkenly and turned empty sockets towards him, as if the ghosts of its eyes still enabled it to see.

Tears streamed from Ed's eyes, as he watched the things approach. "Stay away!" he cried, as he scooted backwards along the ground. "Stay away from me!"

Neither paid any heed to his words. They advanced on him, their heads shaking as if denying anything and everything.

Ed scrambled to his feet. He ran. The youth ran, as tears continued to stream uncontrollably from his eyes. He couldn't help it. Try as he might, he could not stop the tears of shame from burning his cheeks. He could only run away from the monstrosities that shambled after him.

"What?"

On turning round a corner, he encountered something. It lay there, quivering in the alleyway. Whatever it was, it had legs and dragged itself across the ground with its arms, its eyes wide-open, its lips forced wide open by the arm that protruded from its mouth.

The youth trembled, his face contorted with fear and disgust. He looked at the monstrosity, watched as it crawled towards him. It invoked strangely familiar feelings in him; shame and terror washed over him.

"Leave me alone!" cried Ed, as he backed off. "Just get away from me! Get away!" He turned and ran again.

The many-faced monstrosity blocked his exit. It stared at him deploringly, its many faces wailing viciously as it shambled towards him. The thing was huge, much larger than Edward remembered it being. There was no way he could get around it, not without getting up close.

Ed looked back towards the thing that crawled along the ground towards him. Yes, it was horrible. It could even be dangerous, but his best bet was to go past it. If it was quick enough, he could get past it no problem.

He took a deep breath to steel his nerves.

The youth coughed at the sickening stench that assaulted his senses. He could smell the sickly sweet stench of rotting meat and the sour tang of rusting metal.

Behind him, he could hear the moans of the multi-faced monstrosity. If he was to live, he had to act.

"Alright, here I come!" he shouted, before he rushed at the monstrous creature that crawled towards him. He leapt over it, and fell flat on his face.

The lantern skittered away from him.

Ed looked back. A bloodied hand had grabbed his leg; attached to the arm that protruded from the legless monstrosity's mouth, its fingers clasped tightly around his leg. He smiled manically. "Oh, you want to play, do ya?" he chuckled, his voice starting to crack. "Well, take this!" He kicked out at the thing's face with his left automail leg repeatedly, smashing its face in with his booted foot.

With every hit the thing screamed in agony, cried out in pain. Ed kicked furiously and madly. He could hear the bone of its skull crunching. The thing let go, its fingers loosening their grip on his leg. He pulled his leg out of the weakened grasp and scrambled to his feet.

Grabbing the lantern, Ed fled down the alleyway, leaving single bloody footprints in his wake.

* * *

Edward Elric stopped on the corner of Koontz and Wein Street, underneath a broken lamppost. The lantern lay on the ground beside his feet, as he leaned against the rusty pole, his hands on his knees, his chest heaving as he gasped for air.

After a while, Ed picked up the lantern and straightened up. He looked around him in the silent darkness, the light barely penetrating the sea of blackness.

Where should he go from here?

Perhaps, he thought, it would be best to find Roy Mustang again. After all, he would be safer if he stuck with the soldier. Yet a part of him didn't want to. He had something of a sense of pride, something he couldn't compromise, even if it meant… Now Ed had severe doubts. Did his pride go that far? Would he die rather than let Roy Mustang help him?

Damn him, thought Ed angrily. He couldn't believe that he would have to crawl back to Roy Mustang like some whining, apologetic puppy. The thought made his stomach twist inside him.

What else could he do, though?

Edward sighed exasperatedly. "Fine," he said, glad to hear a voice in the silence, even if it was his own, even if there was a chance that it could attract some of those monstrosities. "I'll go find that jerk."

Where, though? Where could he find Roy Mustang?

Suddenly cautious of his surroundings, Edward put the lantern at the base of the lamppost and stepped out of their sphere of influence, into the darkness that seemed as solid as stone itself. He was amazed at how quickly the darkness enveloped him the moment he stepped out of the lamppost's light. Ed would have thought that at least some light would be reflected onto him. It was as if the light was some island in a sea of night.

A bit like the town, Edward mused.

"The hospital," exclaimed Edward.

That's right, he distinctly remembered Roy Mustang talking about the Gordon King Hospital. Like the town, the hospital seemed completely cut off by chasms that tore across the land. The soldier had seemed quite insistent on finding a way to Gordon King, as if he could find all the answers there.

And why not, Edward mused. It seemed as if someone didn't want them to leave, and more importantly, didn't want them to get anywhere near the Hospital.

Well, that's that, then, mused Edward, as he picked up his lantern again. He would try to find his way to the Gordon King Hospital. Perhaps he really would find some clues there, clues as to what happened to the town of Silent Hill.

Edward's shoulders slumped, as he realised the one problem. Where would he find Roy Mustang? He knew where the soldier wanted to go, but how would Mustang get there? "Damn him," growled Edward angrily. "Why couldn't he want to go somewhere easy like the Alchemilla Hospital or even better yet, why…?"

* * *

"…don't you go outside and play for a little while?" asked his mother with a little smile on her face. "It can't be good for you to stay cooped up in this room all day." She coughed a little.

"But, Mom, what about you?" asked Alphonse, as he lifted his head up to look at his mother concernedly.

Their mother smiled. "Don't worry about me," she told them calmly. "I'll be alright. Your father will be back soon. Besides, the nurses will take care of me." She stroked Alphonse's cheek with a single hand, her lips warm with a tender motherly smile. "We're here on holiday. You two should be enjoying yourselves," she said.

"Edward, why don't you take your little brother outside to play?" asked his mother from the bed. "The nurses told me the lakeshore is very nice this time of the year. You can play there, as long as you don't disturb anyone."

"But…" began Alphonse.

Edward hopped off the chair. "Come on, Al," he said to his younger brother. "Mom's right. Let's go..."

* * *

"…to the Lake," murmured Edward, as he looked at the map laid in front of him.

That's right, if he could get to the Lake, he might find a way to Gordon King Hospital. He couldn't approach it from Acadia Street or Midway Avenue, but it was possible he could still approach Gordon King from Toluca Lake.

It was easy. He could just follow Sagan Street west until he hit Bachman Road. Then he could take it south to the Lakeside Amusement Park. Sure, that meant he had to go in completely the opposite direction to the Hospital, but what else could he do? And if that Roy Mustang had any sort of brains on him, that was exactly the same thing that the soldier would do too.

Edward looked to his side, up at the façade of the building near him. The sign was barely legible, but it was clear what this place was. This was a police station. As was the custom in the State of Amestris, the officers were no doubt members of the Military Police.

He climbed up the steps and pushed the doors open, shining a little bit of light in to see what lay beyond. The coast seemed clear.

The doors swung open.

Ed walked into the police station. He stopped. Light from his lantern fell across a pattern that dominated the centre of the floor. He recognised it as a transmutation circle, drawn in blood. It was a very complicated transmutation circle too, an advance pattern only a seasoned Alchemist would know, perhaps even a State Alchemist.

Could alchemy be the explanation? Had Silent Hill suffered the blowback from an alchemical reaction gone wrong? It would explain the monstrosities around him; they were possibly chimeras, alchemical attempts at creating life.

Did all those monsters used to be human beings?

Edward shivered at the very thought of it. He hoped it wasn't true, but where else could the townsfolk have gone? They were missing. Were they all devoured by the monsters or were they the monsters themselves? He didn't like either answer. Neither was worth thinking about.

"The files might tell me something," he thought to himself.

The cabinets didn't contain much, save for a single gun in a nest of illegible paper flakes. He picked the weapon up. It had bullets. He searched the other drawers and found one box of bullets.

"Who's there?" asked Ed, as he whirled round. He thought he had heard a noise.

It sounded as if it'd come from the direction of the cells. Was it possible that someone still lived or was it one of those monsters that now roamed the streets? He wasn't sure, but now that he was armed, now that he had some protection against the surreal life forms that shivered in the night, he felt confident enough to investigate.

Slowly, and calmly, Ed moved through to the holding cells.

It wasn't likely that anyone had survived, Ed noted. The floors of the cells were stained with huge violent splotches of dried blood. Rust covered the bars and…

Someone occupied the last cell along. He wore a light blue shirt that invoked familiar memories. From behind, Ed couldn't see a single splotch of blood. The short-cropped hair, the shirt, the brown trousers, everything seemed clean; the skin of his exposed lower arms was clean and a healthy hue.

If anyone seemed like a survivor, this person was a likely candidate. But more importantly…

"Al?" exclaimed Ed incredulously. "Alphonse, is that you?"

* * *

Author's Note: There's nothing to say here really, except that I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Oh and sorry for the delay. Unfortunately, it couldn't really be helped. I'm really busy these days. Anyway, thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

He smiled back at Ed, as he got up from the bench. "Do I remind you of someone?" he asked, as he walked up to the bars.

Ed looked past the rusting bars at the fair-haired young man. This person, he couldn't help but notice was not Alphonse. The skin was too tanned and the eyes were the red of an Ishbalan. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "You reminded me of my brother. You could have been his twin, you know."

The Ishbalan laughed. "A twin you don't know about," he chuckled. "Hey, perhaps your Dad had a little someone on the side, eh?"

"That wouldn't surprise me," said Ed, his eyes narrowing.

"Hey!" cried the Ishbalan, as he saw Ed turn away. He rushed at the bars, grabbed them with both hands. "Aren't you going to let me out of here?"

"Why would I do that?" asked Ed, his back to the cell. "You're obviously in there for a reason."

"I didn't do anything, I swear," protested the Ishbalan. "Please, you've got to believe me."

Ed could see that the Ishbalan had been trapped in the cell for days. He looked frail and tired. "You'd be safer in there," he told the Ishbalan. "There're monsters out there."

"And how long do you think I'd last in here?" retorted the Ishbalan.

The Ishbalan was right. There was no way Ed could leave this person behind in the dingy cell, amongst the dried blood and rust. He couldn't possibly leave this Ishbalan alone in the suffocating, iron-smelling darkness.

"And how do you think I'm going to get you out of there?" snapped Edward angrily.

The Ishbalan pointed to Edward's left hand. "Shoot the lock," he responded.

He had almost forgotten about the gun in his hand, loaded with bullets. Ed had intended to use it on the monsters that were out there. It was his only protection against the bloody things that shambled around in the misty night.

"No," said Ed with a shake of his head. "I can't waste the ammo." He backed off away from the cell. "I'm gonna go see if I can find a key or something. Don't go anywhere."

"Ha, ha, very funny," said the Ishbalan sarcastically.

Ed walked back towards the room with the transmutation circle. He raised his lamp and scanned the walls. There didn't seem to be anything hanging from them, not even the usual bulletin board. He couldn't see any hooks, nothing from which keys could be hanging from.

Perhaps they were in a desk. If he searched the desks, perhaps he'd find the keys. There was, after all, no sign of any keys in the filing cabinet he'd searched earlier. But there could have been a bunch of keys in the desk next to it.

He hoped, though, the Ishbalan wouldn't mind if he answered the call of nature. There was, after all, no knowing when he needed to go again. He looked around him and noticed a door was ajar not too far away and from the distance, he could see the toilet inside.

Upon getting near it, he began to wonder whether it was such a good idea. It might have been white at one point in its life, but it had since yellowed and was streaked with what he hoped was rust. Had the awry transmutation done this to the toilet or had it always been like that?

Something glinted in the light of his lantern.

"Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed angrily.

The toilet was blocked, but there was clearly something metallic in the clog. He could see it glinting at him, despite the brown misty water. There was a bunch of keys underneath the water and knowing his luck, they were likely to be the keys to the Ishbalan's cell.

Ed shivered at the thought of having to plunge his hand into the water. There had to be another way, more specifically, a better way. He looked around him. Was there some kind of stick he could use? After all, this was a bunch of keys and he could lift it out by the metallic ring.

He looked at the gun. Perhaps he could use the barrel of the gun. The ring was quite big; he was sure the gun barrel could fit within it. But he hardly knew anything about guns. Would he end up clogging the mechanism if he dipped the barrel into that gunk?

"Who would even do such a disgusting thing?" Ed wondered aloud. He sighed heavily and walked back the way he'd come.

"You know," he said, as he walked back to the cell, "maybe you're right. I guess I should shoot the lock."

The Ishbalan rolled his eyes. "Now why didn't I think of that?" he retorted sarcastically.

"Very funny," said Ed, as he aimed. "Now stand back!"

There was a bang.

"Hey, watch what you're doing!" cried the Ishabalan.

Ed smiled sheepishly at the bullet hole in the brick wall behind the Ishbalan. "Sorry about that," he apologised. "Guess I…" he began, then thought better of it. "Just stand back, alright?"

"Don't think it'll do much good if that's what your aim is like," snapped the Ishbalan, as he pointed at the hole in the cell wall.

"Shut up!" snapped Ed. "You want me to bust you out or not?"

"Alright, alright," sighed the Ishbalan.

This time round, he tried his best to look down the barrel of the gun. Slowly, Ed aimed, not noticing that the Ishbalan had now retreated to the far corner of the cell. His finger squeezed gently on the trigger and then, when he was sure, he pulled.

The metallic lock sparked as the bullet struck it.

Ed kicked the door with his automail leg. A smile spread across his lips as it creaked open.

"Well, it's a good thing that worked, eh?" said the Ishbalan. "My name's Ali. What's yours?"

"Edward," responded Ed calmly.

"Well, I guess I owe you my thanks, Edward," responded Ali.

Ed turned his back to the Ishbalan. "Don't thank me just yet," he said sternly. "There doesn't seem to be any way out of the town."

"Wait, what?" exclaimed Ali, before he rushed after the diminutive Amestrian. "What do you mean there's no way out? What's happened?"

"I don't know," replied Ed. "Just trust me on this. There's no physical way of getting out of the town. I've tried." He stopped at the exit and peered out onto the street. "There're chasms everywhere. All the roads are cut off."

Ali stopped at the foot of the steps. "What? But how? Why?" he asked.

Ed shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know. No one he'd met so far really knew. "You've been here longer," he told Ali. "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me."

"I don't know," replied Ali with a shake of his head. "I just…" He trailed off. "This place wasn't like this when I... One moment, they'd thrown me in the cell..." He shook his head.

"Just like me," commented Ed.

Why didn't he remember? It seemed so strange that he couldn't remember how he'd got to the town. He tried to think back, to remember what had happened before he'd found himself on that winding misty road. Yet he couldn't. There was nothing. Everything before it was a huge blank, all he could remember were the memories of his little brother and his mother.

"What's wrong?" asked Ali suddenly.

"Nothing's wrong," replied Ed, as he turned away from the Ishbalan.

"You're crying."

Ed wiped his eyes. "No, I'm not," he said sternly. "Now are you coming or what?"

"Coming to where?"

"Gordon King," replied Ed. "It's the closest we can get to the lake. It might be our only hope out of here."

He hoped that if nothing else, he could at least try to build a boat and sail across the water. There didn't seem to be any chasms in the lake itself, not that he could tell. Perhaps he could escape that way.

* * *

He'd only just passed Alchemilla Hospital, when he saw him.

"Mr Tucker!" Ed cried out.

There was no response. Shou Tucker continued on down the street and turned the corner. It was as if he hadn't heard or as if he had chosen not to hear.

"You know him?" asked Ali curiously.

"Sort of," responded Ed. "He's looking for his family."

Ed wondered why Tucker hadn't heard him. The man had been hurrying somewhere. Was it possible that he had finally found his family? He couldn't imagine why the man would hurry so urgently. That had to be it.

"Come on, let's go after him," said Ed.

"What? What for?" exclaimed Ali in surprise.

"There's safety in numbers," replied Ed. He walked down the street before Ali could respond, knowing that the Ishbalan would follow him.

"Hey! Wait up!"

At the corner, Ed turned left onto Midway Avenue. This brought memories back. He could remember standing outside the pet shop on Midway with his brother. Ed remembered the dogs he saw through the window, the puppies and kittens. His brother had watched starry-eyed as the kittens roughhoused with each other in their little cages. He had preferred the puppies himself with their adorable folded-over ears and wagging tails.

"Hey," cried Ali, as he grabbed Ed by the shoulder.

Ed cried out and shirked away from Ali's grip. He whirled round, aimed his gun and… "What the Hell do you think were you doing?" he shouted angrily. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Well, what did you go running off like that for?" snapped Ali. "Safety in numbers, my ass."

"It's not as if you couldn't see where I was going," retorted Ed.

"I'm not some dog following his master," argued Ali angrily. "What if something attacked me while you were racing after some…" He sighed and shook his head. "You know what? Forget it." The Ishabalan looked down the street, past Ed, as if he wasn't there. "So where'd this guy go, then?"

"Damned if I know," responded Ed with a shrug of his shoulders. "He couldn't have got far."

"I hope so. This place is really creeping me out."

They walked carefully down the misty street, aware that monstrosities could be lurking anywhere. Luckily, there were few abandoned automobiles around - a blessing and a curse; monsters couldn't hide underneath or in them, but then, neither could they.

Ed looked through the windows of the shops, as they passed by, just in case Shou Tucker had gone into one of them. It seemed the logical thing to do.

"There he is!" exclaimed Ed suddenly.

"Where?"

"The pet shop," responded Ed, as he rushed to the door. He yanked it open and called out, "Mr Tucker!"

There was no response. Shou Tucker merely stood there in the middle of the store, his head lowered and his body swaying like a slender tree in a breeze. A strange rasping noise seemed to fill the air, as he swayed side to side in an almost drunken manner.

"Mr Tucker, are you alright?" asked Ed, as he walked closer to him.

"Ed, I don't think we should be here," said Ali suddenly.

"Mr Tucker?"

"It was two years ago, I'm sure of it," whispered Shou Tucker, as he looked down at the floor. "It must have been. Two years, I'm sure!" He shuddered. "It must be. It has to be!"

"Mr Tucker, you okay there?" asked Ed, as he approached. "Mi…" He trailed off in the middle of a word, as he looked down on the floor.

It looked like it had once been a dog but its toes were far too long. The corpse's blood pooled on the floor and covered the strange pattern of the transmutation circle drawn on the floor. One of its forelegs was stretched out, as if it had tried to reach something beyond the edge of the chalk circle.

Ed backed away, his breathe heavy and ragged. The horrific bloody mess of flesh and fur disturbed him, reminded him of something horrible, something dark and twisted. "What is that?" he exclaimed. "Mr Tucker?"

"Huh? Who's there?" exclaimed Mr Tucker, as he whirled round. "Oh, it's you."

His shirt was stained with blood, the same blood that coated the steel pipe in his hand. Red specks stained his forearm and a splash of blood covered the right lens of his spectacles. "I didn't hear you come in," said Tucker, his breath just as ragged as Ed's was.

Nothing seemed to happen, as they stood there. None of them said a thing. They just stood there in an awkward silence that seemed so terrifyingly solid and permanent that any spoken word or sound would fall endlessly into its depths, never to be heard. How many seconds, possibly minutes, passed by, none of them knew.

"I see you're safe," said Shou Tucker suddenly. "That's good."

"What is that thing?" asked Ed, as he pointed with a gloved finger at the dead corpse.

Shou Tucker shook his head. "I… don't know," he responded. "It just… came out of nowhere… and attacked me." He glanced back. "It…" He shook his head. "Let's just get out of here."

"What about your family?" asked Ed.

The man stared at Edward with a blank expression on his face. Slowly, he raised a hand that shook with Parkinsonian tremors and took his spectacles off. "I think," he began, as he tried his best to wipe the blood off the lens, "they might be in Gordon King. It's the only place I haven't searched yet."

"That's where we're heading," said Ed.

"Whatever for?" asked Shou Tucker curiously.

"To get out of here," responded Ed.

He had wandered the town for quite some time. Everywhere he went, the chasms in the ground gaped widely, huge cavernous maws with no end. They seemed to channel him, to keep him away from the edges. Chasms circumscribed his world.

"Lake Toluca is still there," said Ed. "If we cross it, perhaps we might be able to get out of Silent Hill."

"Yes, Gordon King is by the lake," said Shou Tucker. "Perhaps that's why my family may have fled there."

"We'd have to see if we can get a boat when we get there," said Ed, "and hopefully, we'd all be able to fit. I mean, there's six of us."

"Six?"

"Yeah, there's me, you, A…" began Ed, only to trail off.

The Ishbalan wasn't with him. Ali was distinctly not there. Ed couldn't understand it. He was sure the Ishbalan had followed him into the shop. "He was here just a moment ago!" protested Ed aloud, as he rushed to the door and yanked it open. "Ali!" he called, as he dashed outside. "Ali!" he shouted into the empty street.

"Now it's dark."

Ed whirled round. "You saw him, didn't you?" he asked Mr Tucker.

"Saw who?" he replied.

The blonde-haired kid looked away, an angry expression on his face. "The damned idiot," he muttered under his breath. "Why didn't he follow me in?"

A gasp escaped Tucker's lips.

"What?" asked Ed, as he whirled round only to see the horror splattered on Shou Tucker's face. He looked round. "Oh, shit."

Some six-legged monstrosity lumbered through the streets. As it closed in on them, Ed could see that each leg was a corpse wrapped up in a cocoon of bloodied, veined skin. The bloody abdomen was coffin-shaped and a pair of pale-bloodied arms dangled over its top.

"We've got to get out of here!" cried Ed, as he turned to look at Shou Tucker, but the man was already way ahead of him. "Hey, wait up!" he shouted angrily.

Ed ran for his life. He glanced back to see the monster still lumbering slowly towards him. There was no chance it could catch up with him. He could outrun it.

Something burst through a window. Ed ducked. The thing flew overhead and slammed into the side of an abandoned automobile. He stopped to look at it.

The thing was a strange creature, covered in bandages. Its head was like that of a dog or possibly something else. One arm was normal, but the other ended in a huge club-like appendage. Unlike the monstrous coffin monster, Ed was sure it could run after him. He fumbled for his gun, as it staggered to its feet.

Ed aimed the weapon and prayed that he would hit it. He couldn't miss. There was no way he could afford to. As he aimed, the creature stumbled towards him and raised a clubbed appendance.

"Stay back!" he shouted, his hands wavering. "Get away from me!"

A horrible pained groan escaped the monster's mouth, teeth bared in a perverse rictus. It shuddered violently before it lashed out.

One shot. A second gunshot. Ed fired again, but the monster wouldn't go down. A fourth and finally…

Tears streamed down Ed's cheeks, as he looked at the crumpled bloody mess. "I'm sorry," he apologised. "I'm sorry."

Ed shouted in horror, as he recoiled back away from the monster's corpse. Ants streamed out from the creature's mouth, a wave of black insects that swarmed towards him. He breathed heavily and erratically, his black pupils wide in disbelief at the sight.

The diminutive teenager ran. He pelted down the misty street. Every fibre of his being wanted to escape the monstrosity. Ed ran down the street and turned the corner.

His foot caught against something and Ed fell forward. He reached out with gloved hands to protect himself, felt the impact of the hard ground underneath him.

Ed scrambled to all fours, his ears filled with the heavy throbbing of blood and the ragged panting of his breath. "A…" he began, only to trail off.

So this is where the Ishbalan had ended up. Ali lay on the floor, his eyes staring sightlessly above him. Blood covered his mouth, stained his chin and his neck. His left leg was missing and blood pooled on the ground near the severed stump.

"Al," he cried out. "Damn! Damn, how could this have happened?" He smelt the metallic stench of blood and something else. Underneath it all, he could smell the pungent scent of decay. He heaved and emptied the contents of his stomach. Tears streamed from his eyes and down his cheeks, dripped down his nose and mixed with the bile and half-digested food. His ears heard nothing but the sound of retching. Nothing seemed to exist except for his stomach and the way it felt as if it was turning itself inside out. He vomited for what seemed like aeons.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, it ended. Slowly and unsteadily, Ed staggered back to his feet. "

"I'm sorry," apologised Ed, as he wiped his mouth. "I'm sorry, Ali."

Ed turned to look behind him.

A great building loomed ahead of him, a red brick building with large mullioned windows, stained with age and covered in spidery cracks. The walls of the ground floor were once white stone, but were now yellow like a forty-a-day smoker's teeth. The roof was grey slate and above the recessed entrance, was a triangular section that reminded Ed of an ancient Hellenistic temple.

"No, it can't be," said Ed with a shake of his head.

He was sure that his mother had once stayed here in this building. Ed was sure she had fallen ill and had been taken to the hospital by the lake. That memory was as clear as day; he was sure of it.

Perhaps he was mistaken. Maybe she had been taken to Alchemilla Hospital.

The sign in front of him clearly proclaimed the hospital to be Gordon King, that much was certain.

Ed laughed. "I see now," he said.

He knew what he had to do.

Edward Elric had to venture inside that building. He knew he had to. There was no question about it, although if you had been able to ask him why, he would not have been able to tell you.

Something told him that the answers lay inside there.

All his questions would be answered inside Gordon King Psychiatric Hospital.

* * *

Author's Note: I'd like to apologise for the huge hiatus in this story. I was suffering from an incredibly huge bout of depression and writer's block. It only broke this year and even then, I was in no mood to write horror, as you might have noticed if you've watched my output. I'm keen on getting this story going, so you shouldn't be left waiting for too long now, but there's isn't that much left to tell. The end is nigh.


	4. Quatro, Quatre, Four, Vier

**QUATRO...QUATRE...FOUR...VIER...**

"Hello, little boy, are you lost?"

Ed looked at the woman with a sense of distrust. The nurse had black hair that hung down to chin-level, cut in a straight line across the front so that it stopped just above her eyebrows. She looked at her with what seemed to be a smile on her lips, but her purple eyes seemed clouded over with irritation.

"Where's your mother?"

Still, he did not reply. He just stood there, his lips curled downwards. Ed walked past her wordlessly, not trusting her to be of any help.

"Hey, where are you going?" exclaimed the woman, as she whirled round.

He felt her grab him by the sh…der. Her grip was painfully tight, but… shrugged loose from her. He slipped out of her grasp and ran… the corridor… shouts ec…ing… doc…rs… nur…

Staring…

* * *

…blinked, as he stood there. The walls were streaked black and there was a heavy, smoky smell in the air. There were gaps in some of the walls, large vacuous wounds that exposed the skeletal support beams.

A fire must have gutted this place long ago, but it was still recognisable. This was the same corridor. He had been looking for his little brother; Alphonse had run off after her mother had suggested they go out and play. This was where he had met that nurse with those cold, calculating eyes.

"My mom wasn't crazy," he murmured under his breath, as his feet crunched over large black flakes on the ground. "She wasn't crazy."

Maybe the corridor only resembled the one he had seen in the hospital. Yet it couldn't be just a mere resemblance. The ambulance had taken her to a hospital by the lake and Gordon King was the only one that fit the description that he could see. Perhaps, they had changed the nature of the hospital since he'd left; it had been a long time since he'd been in Silent Hill. He had only been…

Well, he couldn't quite remember how young he had been, but he had definitely been a little kid and now he was…

Ed's mind went blank. He couldn't remember how old he was. How many years had it been since he'd visited Silent Hill? He tried his best to think about that too. It was impossible. He couldn't remember and that scared him.

Some memories did come back, though. He remembered his mother's death. Ed remembered how he had spent hours sitting in front of her grave, unaware of the weather and his surroundings. He had sat there, pining for his lost mother, wondering why she had to die, why she had to leave him behind.

He shook his head with a heavy sigh and walked down the corridor. Ed wasn't sure why, but he found himself walking down the same corridor that had led to his mother's room.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Ed strained to listen in the darkness, his lantern providing the only light. There was somebody else. He was sure there was somebody else; he could hear them crying.

Through a door, Ed found himself in an operating theatre.

Someone had overturned the operating table, perhaps a long time ago. It lay on its side, the metallic frame black and rusted. Rust covered the walls and bare wires hung from the ceiling, wires that would have once supplied the powerful operating lamps.

A man crouched on the ground near a pattern chalked onto the ground.

Ed recognised it as the same transmutation circle he'd seen in the police station. There was an outer circle and an inner circle. In the band between were runes with strange symbols at the compass points: an almond shaped eye in the north. There were three circles inside the inner circle accompanied by more runes.

"Hello, are you alright?" asked Ed curiously, as he approached. He gasped, as the man turned round. "Mr Tucker?" he exclaimed.

The man looked at Ed with baleful eyes, as he crouched there on the floor. With a heavy sigh, he unsteadily rose to his feet.

"What are you doing here?" asked Ed curiously. "Did you find your wife and child?"

A strange smile slowly spread across the man's lips like an oil slick. "You can find all sorts of things in Silent Hill," he replied. "… is f… with secrets…"

"Sorry, what?" asked Ed.

He hadn't heard much of what Shou Tucker had said. The last few words had been indistinct, far away and muffled, as if he was somehow listening to the man through a feet of water.

A spark burst through the air, luminous embers spraying from the bare wires like pollen. They arced to the ground, faded before they could even touch the charred floor. A quiet, yet insistent electric buzzing filled the noiseless void.

"And then there they were!" exclaimed Shou Tucker, as if he had been talking all that time. "It was so simple. Alchemy held the key." He laughed, as he spread his arms out. "All you need is the right transmutation circle."

Two large things lumbered out of the darkness to stand beside Ed. Before he could even react, they grabbed him with one, large, muscular arm, veiny and meaty, speckled in blood. These things were human in a way, though grotesquely muscular. A large protuberance grew out of their head, resembling a large conical spike that pierced through one arm and the skull, stretching the mouth wide over its girth.

"Human transmutation is forbidden by the State," said Tucker, as he gestured for them to come closer. "But here, in Silent Hill, the State cannot reach me." He chuckled. "It was quite by accident, I assure you, but now I am close. Now I am close."

"Let go of me!" continued Ed, as he kicked and struggled to break free from the monsters' grasp.

"Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist, I've finally found you."

The smile on Tucker's lips evaporated at the sound of the voice that cut through the darkness. "Colonel Mustang," he croaked.

"I had a feeling you were responsible when I saw those things out there," said Roy Mustang, as he stepped through a jagged hole in the tiled wall. "I don't know what you've done to this town, how you've managed to cut it off like that, but it all ends here."

Tucker shook his head viciously, as if denying everything and anything. "You don't understand, you don't understand!" he screamed. "Do you think God would let it? I have been offering prayers to God, sacrifices to God. This is all his will!"

"And what god would this be?" asked Mustang disdainfully. "It's a strange god that would reward you your efforts with this."

"Stop standing there, yapping," shouted Ed suddenly. "Do something!"

Roy Mustang extended his left arm and flicked his fingers. The eyes of the monstrosity to Ed's right burst into flames. A hideous, inhuman screech escaped its crammed mouth, as it let go.

"No, I won't let you!" cried Tucker, as he rushed for the circle.

Mustang cut off Tucker's path with a plume of flames.

One of the monstrosities that held onto Ed let go. With a muffled rumble of rage, it stumbled towards Mustang, shaking its strange conical protrusion like a club.

A few clicks of his fingers and Mustang killed the beast.

"Oh God, glorious bearer of truth, bring my wife back to me!" called out Tucker, as he slapped his hands onto the transmutation circle.

What little light there was flickered violently, a battle of light and darkness.

A strange, horrific noise echoed suddenly in the darkness. Ed couldn't quite place it, but there was something impossibly nauseating about it. It reminded him of something, of some event. It sounded like someone vomiting, but the vomit was very wet and slick, sounding like water.

Something rose out of the transmutation circle. Long black tendrils sprouted from the ground, each ending in small embryonic hands. These things stretched out, waved like seaweed fronds.

One lunged out like an octopus' leg. It pierced Mustang in his left eye. Others embraced Tucker lovingly, as something charred black crawled out of the ground. It was human in shape, but the limbs…! The limbs were bent backwards not through natural degrees, but as if someone had twisted violently and dislocated the arms. Blood welled up from its mouth and every now and then, the thing would convulse before coughing and spluttering more blood from its mouth in a crimson fountain.

Tucker's smug, confident smile slowly faded into a look of pure horror. He screamed.

Ed turned and ran. He heard screams behind him, violent screams that echoed in his ears. The screams continued to echo, until there was only one.

Tears streamed down Ed's cheek, as he ran through the darkened corridor of the hospital, his own screams of terror accompanying him.

"I'm not here. It's only me now."

Edward ran down the corridor…

…passou pela…

…infirmières

…all staring

…lachten

…er weinte

Young Edward opened the door, let light shine in and pierced the darkness. Shadows fled. "Alphonse, what are you doing here?" he asked, as he saw…

…Ed crouched on the floor, his knees tucked under his chin and his arms crossed. His face was contorted into a grimace, a mix of fear and confusion. He couldn't understand what was going on.

Only a few moments ago, he was sure that he had been running down the corridor from some monstrosity. He was sure he had been running. How had he ended up in this place, this…? He looked around him; it was a broom closet of some sort.

"What are you doing in there?" repeated Ali, as he stood at the doorway.

"Alphonse?" exclaimed Ed.

The Ishablan laughed. "Do I really look like your brother that much?" he asked. He shook his head. "Come on, your mom would like to see you."

"My… mom?" asked Ed.

"She's waiting for you, Ed," said Ali.

His mind in turmoil, Edward Elric slowly got back up to his feet. "My mom asked for me?" he asked curiously, and received only a silent nod in response.

It was such a strange answer! It didn't feel real to him, but then, how could it feel any less real than what he had seen?

Cautiously, like a newborn calf, Ed took tentative steps out of the closet. He stepped out into white corridor, his hands shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight that streamed through a window.

Two orderlies walked past, wheeling a man on a bed. He looked pretty badly beaten up, his face bruised, blood streaming from his lips.

"Cerebral haematoma, multiple contusions, infarctions," listed off a doctor, who walked past. "Also some stabby bits."

"Come on," said Ali, before he led the way.

Ed followed the Ishbalan, walking past a doctor that looked suspiciously like Roy Mustang. He saw the nurse from his childhood, although she didn't seem to want to look at him. She consistently turned, so that he could only see the left half of her body.

"All you need is the right transmutation circle."

He whirled round. Ed looked down the corridor, but he couldn't see anyone. There wasn't a single soul in it, save for Ali and him.

"Edward is something wrong?" asked Ali.

"No, it's nothing," responded Ed, as he turned. "It's just… Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?"

"It's like blood," said Ed.

Ali laughed at this comment. "It is a hospital, Ed," he told the blonde Amestrian. "You'd expect to smell some."

"No, I don't think you would," said Ed with a shake of his head. "Not this intense." The smell was overpowering. It was as i… and… but m…re like there was… He could n…

_E__nsinamentos que__não falam__de dor__não tem significado__._

"Are you coming or what?" asked Ed, as he looked back at his younger brother. "Mom's waiting." He watched impatiently, as Alphonse… their mother's hospital room…

_L'humanité ne peut__rien gagner…_

Ed clutched at his head. It throbbed and hurt. His left leg hurt just where the automail connected to his body. He had never felt this much pain before, not since the… Ed was sure the surgery had hurt, but he couldn't quite remember it.

"Ed, are you sure you're alright?" asked Ali, as he walked back.

"What's happening to me?" murmured Edward under his breath.

They were no longer in the bright white corridor of the hospital. The walls were blackened and charred, like when he had first entered the ruined hospital.

_ ...ohne vorher etwas geben._

"Wait, what?" asked Ed, as he looked back at Ali. "Did you say something?"

"I said: are you coming or what?" asked Ali impatiently.

Ed sighed heavily. "Yeah, I'm coming," he said with a nod of his head.

* * *

"So, Edward, did you have fun with your little brother?"

Their mother sat in the bed, a book on her lap. She smiled at them. Though the sun shone through the window behind her, they could still see the smile on her shadow darkened face.

Alphonse's face lit up, as he rushed to her bedside. "Yeah, we went on the carousel and the merry go round and Ed ate too much candy floss and got real sick!" he blurted out breathlessly.

"I did not!" protested Ed.

* * *

_They say the sickness has been going around._

Ed thought about how she had looked, when they'd visited her again later that day. She seemed so intensely happy. He remembered how big a smile had been, how brilliantly it had shone even though her head was in shadow because the sun shone through the window behind her.

He could remember her brown hair, the red lips and her beautiful white skin.

_How sad… she left behind two children._

_But what about her husband?_

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Edward. "Say, Ali, how do you know what my mother looks like?" he asked the blonde Ishbalan.

Ali turned round. "What do you mean?" he asked, as he looked at Ed with inquisitive golden eyes.

"Alphonse?" exclaimed Ed in disbelief.

Ali laughed again, as he rested his hand on a door handle. "Why are you always confusing me for your brother?" he asked, as he turned the handle. "Come on, your mom's waiting for you."

_ I don't know where he is, we have no way to get in touch with him._

_ Poor kids…_

The door opened up into a large room, impossibly big for a hospital. Its walls were black, charred by fire and where there used to be windows, were only the rusted iron frames.

In the middle of the room, on the metallic grille that served as the floor was a single solitary bed.

A brown-haired woman sat on it, on top of the covers, a book on her lap. As he followed the blonde person that now looked so much like Alphonse, even down to the skin colour, he saw the woman turn to look at him.

"Ed, I'm so glad you could come and see me," she exclaimed. "You must have had such a difficult journey getting here."

"Mom…?" exclaimed Ed in disbelief, as tears began to well up in his eyes.

His mom smiled at him with beautiful ruby red lips set in a white porcelain face framed by rich chocolate brown hair. She looked just as he remembered her from their time at Silent Hill, when they had visited the carnival with all its bright star-like lights and vivid sparkling colours.

"I've been waiting," said his mother after a long time.

"We've been waiting," said Ali/Alphonse, as he walked up to her side. "You took so long to get here. Didn't you want to see us?"

Ed shook his head. "No, it's not that," he responded. "I wanted to see you. I really did." He looked at the two, a golden-haired kid with golden eyes and a woman with the most beautiful smile in the world. "That's, I suppose, why I came here. But…"

"But?" she asked.

"But what?" asked Ali/Alphonse curiously.

"I shouldn't have come here," said Ed with a shake of his head. "I shouldn't have done it. I realise now."

Upon seeing them, he realised something he had once seen in a book he'd read. Ed had found it in his father's library. The author, a painter, had written something about memories. Now that he looked at these two standing in front of him, he knew what was going on. He knew now that what the painter had said was true.

"I know now," said Ed, as he pointed an accusatory finger at them. "I don't need you."

"What?" exclaimed Ali/Alphonse. "What are you talking about?"

* * *

"Big brother, I'm hungry."

"And cold."

"Let's go home."

There followed a long cold silence. Even the stirring of the wind and the rustling of the leaves failed to be audible in the tangible silence.

"In one of the alchemy books I read, they say you can make people with alchemy. They call it a homunculus. It also said that human beings are made up of the mind, the soul and the physical body."

"Uh huh, I read that too."

"If that's true, I wonder if we can bring Mom back."

"But it said that it's forbidden to create a human being using alchemy."

"Yeah… That's why it'll be our secret."

* * *

"But brother, this is what you wanted," protested Alphonse. "This is what you desired. Mom's here now." He smiled widely, as he beckoned Ed to come closer with a gesture of his hand. "Come closer. Help me with her. Let's go home, together."

Ed shook his head. "No, that's not Mom," he protested, "and you're not Alphonse." He pointed a finger accusingly at the blonde-haired lad. "I remember now," he said. "The transmutation took the real Alphonse. My little brother, my real little brother, is dead."

He thought of that dark, stormy night when his brother and he had attempted human transmutation. That night, he had learnt the truth. The Dead could not be brought back. The circle of life moved only one way.

"I don't know what you are, I don't know who she is, but neither of you are who you say you are," continued Ed.

The image of his mother shook her head. "Oh, Edward, I'm so disappointed in you," she said sternly. "I had such high hopes for you, my darling little boy. You were so clever… so why did you do this to me?" She gestured to herself with both hands, as her body trembled.

The tremors intensified and soon her body convulsed, as blood dribbled down from her forehead. Bloody tears streamed from her eyes, as it oozed out of the corners of her mouth. "Edward," she whispered, before her chest burst open with a sickening crack and a blood-curdling scream.

Ed flinched, his eyes blinked shut.

In that brief moment, things had changed.

Neither Alphonse nor his mother stood in front of him. In their place was some strange monstrosity. It lay on a bare metallic bedframe strapped to its bloodied torso. Its tangled black hair dangled off the edge of the metallic frame. The thing wheezed horrifically, as it stared out at Edward, its exposed ribs opening and shutting like a shark's maw. One of its arms extended upwards, its hand gripping a severed leg. The other hand also gripped a severed leg, though the arm lay off the edge of the metallic frame.

Black legs, covered in staring eyes, extended out of the opened chest. There were eight in total, making the thing look like some grotesque spider.

One black leg raised itself.

Ed ran as the monster stabbed downwards with its sharp leg. He dived out of its way, rolled across the rusted grate that was the floor.

He turned and ran for the door.

There was none. The room was nothing but solid walls, punctuated only by the holes where windows used to be. He ran for one of those instead, heard the loud tapping of its legs against the bare metal behind him, and a horrible repetitive panting scream.

Outside the window was nothing but fog. It hung thickly in the air, a white and grey mist that obscured everything.

As he leaned against the window, something cracked. A small piece of wall fell and plummeted through the air.

"Edward!"

A great shadowy leg nearly speared him through.

He managed to dive out of the way and run underneath the monster.

One final cry and Ed heard something squelch sickeningly. Something from above splattered down around him. It started smoking as it contacted the metal and he could feel the heat on his clothes.

Ed quickly stripped his red coat off and flung it to the ground, watching it smoke as some sort of strange slime ate through it. He looked up and his face contorted.

If he had thought the front of the monster was sickening, he had clearly not seen the back. The upturned belly was round with pregnancy, but something dangled from the vagina. He recognised it.

The hair was slick with blood and the face was pale with dead, obscured in gore, but Ed recognised the shape. The armless torso that hung out of the vagina was shaped just like Alphonse.

Ed watched the armless corpse convulse and then send a spray of bile green liquid at him. He leapt backwards, let the liquid splash over the metal grating.

He remembered the gun.

Why hadn't he thought of it before?

"Edward," whispered the monstrosity, as it rushed at him, swinging severed limbs. "Edward!" screamed a voice that sounded like that of his younger brother.

Carefully, Edward raised the gun. He aimed and fired several shots. The gun clicked. He ducked underneath a severed foot and rolled out of the way of a black leg.

Edward ran as fast as his legs could carry him. As his feet pounded across the metallic grille, he reached down into the pocket of his coat… "Oh shit!" he swore.

There was a gaping hole in the fabric of his coat. He looked around him. Did he drop it in the room? Was it… perhaps, but…

"Edward," whispered the monster.

A severed struck Ed in the face… knocked him…

"What's going on?" cried Edward, as he struggled back to his feet, blood streaming down from a cut on his forehead.

He screamed as he saw the bloody face of the monster in front of him.

"Edward, don't leave me," it called out, as it grabbed him.

What little light vanished and plunged the room into darkness. The light tried valiant struggle creating a strobe pattern that flickered and seemed to make things shudder and change.

Where we come from, there's always laughter in the air and the raven's sing a pretty song.

"But it's too bad you couldn't put me back together too."

* * *

"The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant."

-Salivdor Dali.

* * *

It should have been simple.

Edward and Alphonse Elric had had everything: thirty-five litres of water, twenty kilograms of carbon, four litres of ammonia, one and a half kilograms of lime, eight hundred grams of phosphorous, two hundred and fifty grams of potassium, eighty grams of sulphur, one and a half grams of fluoride, five grams of iron, three grams of silicon and trace amounts of other elements. All that was required to make a human body had been theirs to use.

For years, they had spent hours on end, toiling over the books, working hard for this one great achievement. Years of tears, sweat and blood had been spent on the greatest achievement they could endeavour—human transmutation, the resurrection of their dead mother.

But the floor was awash with blood. Pain seared through his nerves.

His brother's screams still echoed in his ears, reverberated in his mind like the last anguished screams of a tortured ghost. Or was it his? Was he still screaming, from the agony of his lost leg?

It should have been simple.

And it was.

He just simply failed and paid the simple price.

One left leg and the life of his dear younger brother. Laughably simple, a trivial price to pay.

"Alphonse…!"

"Al…!"

"A…!"

"!"

"…"

**VIER… SA… SI… DIE…**

Author's Note: So this is the final chapter. Sorry it took so long, but I had no idea I'd be stuck in another country for a month. And of course, by the time I came back, I completely forgot to continue on this. Well, it's done now. And no, I'm not going to ask any questions about the story. I'm going to leave it all up to yourselves to come up with your own interpretations. It's probably not that good, but I do hope you enjoyed the story whilst it lasted.


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